Thursday, March 18, 2010

So, How is an Un-Enrolled Native-American/Black/French/Irish/Italian Creole Girl Supposed to Fill Out the Census?

I am absolutely dreading filling out the census forms for my family. Being from a port city, my identity is a mix of so many cultures, that it becomes difficult to try and explain on forms what I "am". I usually identify as a Native American/Black/French/Irish because those are the only groups that I actually have cultural ties to, even though we recently learned that my maternal ancestors also include some Germans, too.

My daughter comes from an Italian/Creole family on her father's side. What in heaven's name am I supposed to say that she is? Am I the only one who is completely stressed out about this?

If you really want to find out how screwed up this census form really is, try being a Louisiana Creole or Cajun! Nobody seems to give a damn about our identity. I wonder what my blatino first cousins are going to put, since they identify as Bolivian/Louisiana Creoles. This form is an absolute mess!

5 comments:

i don't know who the hell designed those forms. they make no sense. i am unenrolled, and i don't know what "principle" tribe means. so i just marked myself as Native anyway and listed the tribe i know i am of even if not enrolled. and feel a little dishonest for not including my Scots/Irish half but felt it was more important for the purposes to be counted amongst the NDNs (Lord knows we don't get our freakin' share of funding and they keep acting like we no longer exist).

did you notice the "sex" question too??? like, who doesn't know that it's GENDER, not sex? bad enough that the options are not inclusive, but they still used the word sex??? damn beaurocratic idiots...

Wow - and I thought my family had it bad filling out the Census. Good luck with that one. Hopefully there are enough multiracial people like you and members of my family for the Census Bureau to realize race is becoming an increasingly irrelevant question, and maybe they'll stop asking it!

About Me

Above all else, I am proof that having an incurable cancer doesn't mean that your life is over. I am also the mother of a gifted child who has been an artist since she was born. We live in the southern part of the beautiful state of Louisiana. I'm a biology student on hiatus as I heal from treatment. Besides English, I can speak Arabic, a bit of French and Spanish and nothing more than a few phrases in German but I'm working on it. I love cats and plants even though I only have 2 of each. Some of my friends call me Tulip. You're free to do the same.